The panfish bite has old-timers shaking their heads. Bluegills usually bed in May and into June; maybe July. This past full moon, they were bedding in September; especially so down on Lake George. Few anglers were expecting it, but those who were out there limited over the weekend — and still are.

For you land-locked fishermen, there has been a good bite of big speckled perch at the Rodman Dam — under the spillway. On the lake side of the dam, cane-polers are wearing out the big river mullet — some going more than 3 pounds. Another place that’s thick with mullet is Crescent Lake right now.

The shrimping continues to be disappointing. Modest catches of medium shrimp are being taken, more in the daytime in deeper holes than at night off the docks. But there are enough of them in the river to fatten up the largemouth bass. The shrimp run also makes bass pretty tough to catch on artificial baits. The real thing is so handy.

Tarpon are following the run of mullet into the inlet at Mayport and are being caught at the Buckman Bridge; and even as far down as the Shands Bridge in Green Cove Springs.

The bridge in Palatka is holding schools of stripers, along with some very chubby flounder. The trick is to use live river shrimp on the bottom (dead will do) on a slider rig. Fish the pilings at the bottom.

The Intracoastal Waterway

Can you feel it?

Although temperatures remain in the high 80s, there’s that feeling of fall in the air. For hunters it means bow season. For anglers it means the mullet run. Thick schools of finger mullet are firing up the redfish inshore. We’ve also had the first runs of big silver mullet intermingled with the smaller ones in the surf and the smell of mullet smokers can be caught around Crescent Beach when the wind is right.

The flounder fishing is about as good as it gets right now. Lots of fish are being caught in creek mouths, with the larger ones taken around the inlets on jetty rocks, bulkheads and under docks. If you’re without a boat, the redfish bite on the Matanzas Bridge is hot on the first of the incoming tide. There are flounder down there, too, along with some hefty black drum.

Now is the time to toss medium-sized topwater plugs early and late for speckled seatrout. Salt Run ought to be an very good bet at sunrise.

The Atlantic Ocean

The cold water inversion that lingered over us for most of August has moved away … or under … or whatever they do. But bottom line is that the surf temperature and those out on the local wrecks have returned to the low 80s — up from the low 70s. This should have kicked the kingfish bite back up, but has not. The barracuda, however, are very aware of it.

What has fired up is the tarpon bite. They’re comfortable again and gorging on the schools of mullet moving into the inlet. Three big schools have been working from the end of the south jetties to the Bridge of Lions and Vilano Bridge. They have not been shy about biting.

The downside of the warming temperatures is that the early pompano bite slowed down. They don’t like the warmer water temperatures. But it’s only holding them north of us. They’re waiting for their regular fall run south and it should not be long.

But the redfish and black drum have taken up the slack are biting well all over the beaches, but especially near the two inlets. The reds will hit dead shrimp, but prefer live finger mullet. If you have a cast net, that will be no problem. The drum will want shrimp. So fish two-hook dropper rigs with both pinned to 3/0 circle hooks and cover both bases.

There will be some decent whiting out there as well. With black sea bass fishing closed again, it’s been even more pointless than before to make trips offshore to bottom fish. There have been some pretty good catches of flounder on the shallower wrecks and reefs. Pogies work fine for bait. But a livewell full of frisky finger mullet should be easy to get for the trip out.

Etc.

■ Red snapper mini-seasons open: The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has opened up two, three-day seasons for red snapper in September. The first opens Sept. 14 at 12:01 a.m. and closes Sept. 17 at the same time. The second is the following weekend; Sept. 21-24. Anglers are allowed one fish per day and there is no minimum size limit.

■ A week-long commercial season also opens Sept. 17-24 with a 50-pound per boat daily limit. NOAA could change the openings if bad weather hits on those weekends. It will be announced on NOAA weather radio, in that event. But since this is a South Atlantic-wide opening it is doubtful that anything but a tropical storm or hurricane off the coast would change those dates.

■ This is the first time in three years that snapper will be legal. Call a local charter captain and book a trip. It could be a long time before the opportunity comes knocking again.

NOAA closes commercial porgy complex

NOAA will shut down commercial fishing for gray triggerfish, porgies, yellowtail snapper and several other snapper, grouper and tilefish included in its Deepwater Complex on Sept. 8.